Tobin explains that all the tools he will cover are Houdini and Houdini engine, and they work for both small and large art teams. He emphasizes the importance of using procedural tooling and AI asset generation in creating reusable and sharable tools for different art styles. Tobin shares examples of the worlds he has built in just a few hours using these tools, including a favela world in Rockina and a desert world. Tobin also talks about the different stages involved in the workflow of building a world, such as conception and research, world blocking, AI asset generation, and world refining. He also briefly touches on the use of open-source data and satellite footage in world creation.
Thomas Tobin is a Lead Technical Artist working @ Rainbow Studios. Trained initially as a game designer, he has a firm understanding of how levels are designed and has worked hand in hand with the art team. Previously working on two AAA titles, he has experience working on procedural world tools, optimization pipelining and character tooling. Using this experience, he has built out virtual worlds with an extremely small art team at Unity. For the past few years on the side, he has been teaching Technical Art, Houdini for Games and world building with the Vertex School to help mentor the next generation of Technical Artists. Formerly working on Unity Sports with Mocap, Volcap and environment generation.